A missing AirAsia jet carrying 162 people could be at the bottom of the sea after it was presumed to have crashed off the Indonesian coast, an official said on Monday, as countries around Asia sent ships and planes to help in the search. The Indonesia AirAsia plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore on Sunday.

AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared over the Java Sea an hour into its flight at 06:24 local time (23:24 GMT Saturday). Bad weather was reported in the area but no distress call was made and no wreckage has been sighted.

An AirAsia flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control after take-off, the airline has said, as a search-and-rescue operation kicked off in the third air incident connected to Malaysia's aviation industry. AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier with presence in several Southeast Asian countries, said in a statement that the missing plane was an Airbus A320-200 with 162 people on board, and was supposed to land in Singapore at 8:30am local time on Sunday.

An AirAsia passenger jet carrying 162 people lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control early Sunday, gripping Southeast Asia with a second missing plane crisis in less than a year. The search for the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 will resume at daybreak Monday in Indonesia, according to the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency.

Rescuers scouring Indonesian waters for an AirAsia plane that went missing with 162 people aboard have found no sign of the missing jet more than 16 hours after it lost contact with air-traffic control, officials said Sunday. After more than 10 hours of scouring the Java Sea, Indonesian authorities called off the aerial search for the night and said it would resume at 6 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. ET Sunday). Achmad Toha of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said some ships in the area would continue looking for the missing plane overnight, according to The Associated Press.